Western Norway Party
|headquarters = |youth_wing = Unge Vestlendinger |wing1_title = Women's wing |wing1 = Kvinner av Vestlandet |wing3_title = Overseas wing |wing3 = Vestlandspartiet i Norge |membership = 310,015 thousand (2017) |ideology = Factions: |position = to |international = |seats1_title = Tinget |seats1 = |seats4_title = Munisipalities |seats4 = |footnotes = Conservatism in Vestlandet Political parties in Vestlandet Elections in Vestlandet |colors = Blue }}The Western Norway Party is a centre-right to right-wing political party in Vestlandet. It is currently governing the country in a majority government and has done this since independence in 2011. The party has, in most of its short history, been working alone, but sometimes have gained support from the Christian democrats and the Agrarians. The main opposition to Vestlandspartiet is the Agrarians and the Social democrats. These parties tried to take power in 2011, but failed since Vestlandspartiet gained a clear majority. Vestlandspartiet has gotten the glory for building up the country and keeping it safe. The majority of the party is against membership in the European Union, with small factions wanting nothing with the EU at all. The party is generally conservative and has been in opposition to gay marriage, abortions and extended adoption rights. But also been for the protection of the traditional family, strenghtening the military and christian education in schools. The party also support liberalizing the economy and expanding oil drilling and mining in the country. They are also a front runner for the betterment of pentionists and expantion of roads and railways. There have been one prime minister and one president from Vestlandspartiet, but that is because it has only been one prime minister and one president in the history of Vestlandet. Ketil Solvik Olsen and the party has managed to bind the counties of Vestlandet with new and better roads and railways. They also managed to ensure free travel between citizens of Vestlandet and Norway between their countries. But this has not be extendet to other countries in Europe or in the World. The party has also established tariff on products from outside of Scandinavia into Vestlandet, especially on food, as they want to make Vestlandet selfdependent. The party has also factions that are opposed to immigration from foreign countries. After the European migrant crisis in 2015, Olsens cabinet made the rules regarding immigration into Vestlandet more strict, and the party has gained more support from the far-right. History Vestlandspartiet was founded June 14 of 2007 by former Progress Party member, Ketil Solvik Olsen, along with like-minded members, mainly, from the Progress, Conservative, Liberal, Chistian democratic and Centre parties. Olsen and his comrades was angry on the center-left government and their policies to "dechristianize" the nation and end oil drilling outside the western coast. They wanted to give the region more autonomy or even independence from the Kingdom of Norway. In the beginning the party was seen as a joke by people on the left. Some even stating that the party leadership was a bunch of "Quislings" because they wanted to break free from Norway. The biggest insult came when the national broadcaster, NRK, called the party "a dumb attempt to give power to fanatics". This made many in the party mad, and they arranged protests outside the NRK building in Oslo. Ketil Solvik Olsen demanded that NRK appology. Instead NRK mocked them again. Only this time, it became an insult towards the people of the region of Vestlandet, with their comment of "dumb rural folks". In the 2009 election, the party gained 6,5% of the national vote. Most of the voters was from Vestlandet. But this was not enough to topple the Stoltenberg government, and some leaders of the Conservative and Progress parties blamed Vestlandspartiet for them "loosing" western Norway. This were also the time when the liberal wing of the Progress party became dominant, pushing the conservative wing to join other parties, mainly Vestlandspartiet. In 2010, the city council for welfare and social services in Oslo, Sylvi Listhaug, who originated from western Norway, made huge news when she left the Progress party and joined Vestlandspartiet. She was soon pressured to leave her post and was in the weeks after harassed by far-left individuals and the media. Many in western Norway saw this as an attack on the region, with Ketil Solvik Olsen claiming that it were "an attack on the freedom of association and on Vestlandet". Listhaug moved back to her birthplace, Ålesund, and began campaining for Vestlandspartiet. On July 22 of 2011, an terror attack accured in the capital of Oslo and on the island of Utøya, where the governing Labour party held their youth camp. It were a national tradegy, but the prime minister made it sound like a tradegy for his party, the Labour party. While he later said that he had said it wrong, it could not save his face. Vestlandspartiet used the moment to pressure the government to allow the referendum on independence for Vestlandet. The independence of Vestlandet where a huge sucsess for Vestlandspartiet. Ketil Solvik Olsen became prime minister, and has been it since then. In the 2011 election , the party gained a majority of the votes and the seates and was the natural choice to form government. In 2012, the party became the main opposition to the question about abolishment of the state church, and with this, maintaining the church position as state church, while Norway chooce to abolish it. The party has also made expantion to the building of new roads, and the maintainance of old roads. In 2017, they managed to make E39 ferry free. With Vestlandspartiet in power, they have expanded tariffs on foreign goods and continue oil drilling and mining in Vestlandet. Ideology and political positions The party's main ideologies is Conservatism and Nationalism. The party's origins can be traced back to the Conservative and Progress parties in Norway, but they sees Fedrelandslaget and the conservative and nationalist wings of Bondepartiet as their inspiration. Wings of the party has also embraced Romantic nationalism and populism. Critics of the party has seen it as a continuation of Fedrelandlaget, or even a continuation of Nasjonal Samling. The latter view is however mostly shared by left-wing fanatics and marxists. Vestlandspartiet itself is not exclutionary toward marxists, but wings of them have been very anti-communist. Economic issues Vestlandspartiet generally support the free market and the idea that anyone can become rich by gaining a good education and working hard. But they also support the welfare state, and that the state should be in control of schools and hospitals, but they are not against private buisnesses' right to participate in the economy. Legal issues Vestlandspartiet generally support the right of hunters to own firearms, but they are also for gun restrictions. They have pushed into law that adult citizens of Vestlandet is allowed to own a gun, but walking in the streets with one out will be seen as a crime. The party generally oppose the death penalty, but are for longer prison sentencing and harsher punishment for crimes. They sees medical drugs as legal, but all other uses of it illegal. Vestlandspartiet is also against any change to the constitution, who mostly was a copy-paste of the Norwegian constitution. Social issues Vestlandspartiet generally oppose same-sex marriage, and are generally critical towards "gay pride parades", as they sees those as stereotyping homosexuals as wild and sexual. The party, however support human rights for homosexuals, as they do for all kind of people. A majority of the party is also against abortions, and some of them even seeing abortions as child murder. But the party are for abortion before the tenth week and before the 18th week if the mother or child could be harmed by the birth. This has also become law in Vestlandet. The party is generally opposed to gender and race quotas because they sees such messures as discrimentory towards hard working men, women and people of all races. The party sees people generally based on their personality, nationality and hard work. Not for their gender and race. Before the 2015 European migrant crisis, there where no general view on immigration. But after, Vestlandspartiet became more and more Anti-Immigration. The party want migrant workers from places like Norway, Sweden, Germany and Poland, but have been opposed to immigration from the third world. The opposition has used this to call the party "rascist", but the fact is that Vestlandspartiet has made Vestlandet help more refugees living in refugee camps in the Middle East, than countries like Germany, Sweden and France has done when they have taken them in. Foreign issues Vestlandspartiet does not want the country to be a mayor player on the world stage, but want to have friendly relations to all the mayor powers. Vestlandet is a member of NATO, but not of the European Union, and this reflects the view the party has. The party does not want the country to get involved with the EU and their rules and regulations. Vestlandspartiet has been friendly towards both the Republican party in the United States, and the United Russia party in Russia. There are wings of the party that oppose having friendly relations with the Russian government, but generally does the party support this. The party is also for fixing the relationship between Vestlandet and Norway. This was shown when Norway gave up their claim on Vestlandet in 2012. The party also supports friendly relation with trading partners of the country. Like the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Canada. But they also want the country to be more selfdependent, and have a negative view towards Cuba, mainland China, North Korea and Vietnam. The party was also the frontrunner for higher tariffs on products from Communist countries. Many in the party support pro-Israel policies, and would not recognize Palestine as an independent state. The party was all over the news in Europe when they illegalized and reorganized LO Vestlandet after the organization and their comrades in Norway voted in favour of boycotting Israel. This was seen as an authoritarian move by many countries, and made a stain on relation between Vestlandet and the arabic world. But while Vestlandspartiet is generally in favour of Israel, they do sympathize with the Palestinian. But the party would support the democratic Israel over the authoritarian Arab states. The party supports that foreign aid from Vestlandet mostly is given directly to suffering people or to democratic nations. The party has made efforts to give support to Christians in the Middle East, white farmers in South Africa and southern European states. Party Platform Economic Policy: *Supporting private buisnesses involvence into the Economy *Allowing private schools *Allowing private hospitals *Equal funding for both offical and private schools *Equal funding for both state-run and private hospitals *In support for a small welfare state *In support for 2% of GDP going to military spending Social Policy: *Oppose same-sex marriage, but favour civil unions as an alternative *Abortion only before the tenth week, or 18th if birth could harm Mother or Child *Oppose gender and race quotas *Support worker immigration from Europe *Oppose immigration from the third world *Support the right of hunters to own firearm, and that adults can own a gun *Oppose death penalty *Support legalizing medical drugs Foreign Policy: *Support having friendly relations to mayor powers *Support membership in NATO *Oppose membership in the European Union *Support having friendly relations to the Republican party and the United Russia party *Support fixing relations between Vestlandet and Norway *Support tariffs, more so for products from Communist countries *Support for Israel *Support for Christians and other groups living under repression *Support for Democratic nations *Support for sending help to refugee camps in the Middle East Voter base The voter base of Vestlandspartiet comes usually from a lot of different backgrounds. The middle and high class are the main supporters of the party. The low class are more divided between what party to support. Workers in the oil and mining buisness usually supports Vestlandspartiet along with farmers. The party is also attractable for western Norwegian nationalists and supporters of the Nynorsk form for Norwegian. The party is however less attractable for individuals on the left, mainly socialists and communists. Many socialist nationalists that voted for the independence of Vestlandet feels that Vestlandspartiet was taken away from them by the right. The party is not so much attractive to migrants overall, but remains the biggest immigrant party. Factions Nationalists The western Norwegian nationalists is one of the biggest wings in the party. Many of those involved with such nationalism is often involved in conservatism and liberalism too. Nationalism is however important for the party overall. In general nationalists are against the use of Bokmål Norwegian as a main language, they want to strenghten the armed force, and enforcing tariffs on foreign goods. Conservatives The conservatives is also a big wing of the party, with many conservatives in the party also being in the nationalist wing. In general conservatives are against abortion, same-sex marriage and extended adoption rights. In general they are for strenghtening the military, perserving the traditional family, and more christian education in schools. The wing are further divided in national and social conservatives. Liberals The liberals is also an influencial wing of the party. In general they are for economic liberal ideas and the privatization of buisnesses. They are generally also for lessen the governments role in the citizens life. Controversities and Critics 2015 Migrant crisis controversity In the aftermatch of the European migrant crisis, Vestlandspartiet pushed quickly through a law that limited immigration from outside of Europe into Vestlandet. Citizens who crossed the border had to show passports, or they could be detained. The move was seen down on by European leaders. The prime minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, critizised the move as racial hatred and discrimination. This became also a tense topic in Vestlandet, and the rise in sues from workers who had been fired for their ideology towards their former bosses. 2018 #MeToo Scandal In early 2018, the party became a victim for accusation of sexual harassment. The oil and energy minister and former mayor of Os, Terje Søviknes, was accused by a woman, after her story, that he, while she was intoxicated, had sexual abused her back when she was a young member of the Youth of the Progress Party. While this was known since it happened in 2001, it where flamed up by leftwing media led by Rogalands Avis. Many more accusation came towards members of Vestlandspartiet, but most of them was in the aftermatch found to be more of rumours than accual facts. Nevertheless, this incident made the party lose support, with around 40% in recent opinion polls.